Traditional Forms of Cooperation Basis for Modern Cooperatives in Sudan

In a recent editorial, the Sudan Vision supports using traditional forms of cooperation in their country as the basis for forming modern cooperatives:

The cooperatives have been developed in a local context to solve problems that beset ordinary people, based on the traditional mutual work in the specific local environment.
Cooperatives movement has its deep-rooted and glorious history in supporting the economy and contributing in socioeconomic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration in Sudan.

The thirtieth of last century witnessed the emergence of cooperative in the then Northern Province to provide agricultural machinery to the farmers through importation a matter that represented that start point for a real step forward for the farmers in the province.Another example is Wad Ramli Cooperative in Khartoum North which was established in the fortieth of last century as it managed to export fruits and vegetables abroad.During the period 1969 – 1980 and due to the consequences of the economic situation, late economist Prof. Mohammed Hashim Awad revived the cooperatives movement as most of the districts in the country established its cooperatives to provide the commodities from the factories directly to the consumer which means simply selling in wholesale price.Citizens were able to get their commodities in reduced prices and we are still recalling the cooperatives of each block with certain its certain selling days and the volunteers who took the responsibility in running those cooperatives with their high national spirits to serve their people.The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socioeconomic development. It is high time for our government to launch a cooperative strategy to create viable, sustainable and local economies. We urge all concerned ministries, institutions, related civil society organizations to work jointly to revive the cooperative movement, bearing in mind that we have hundreds of qualified cadres who could shoulder the responsibility of running such activity.